change versus more of the same

January 22, 2005

O2B@C3

This year's Creative Church Conference at Fellowship Church has come and gone. C3 is easily one of the highlights of the year for everyone on staff and this year was no exception. There is nothing quite like the energy of 2,000 people all gathered together for one purpose - to better reach our communities for Christ.

Our two web sessions on Thursday, WWW: Web, Weblogs, and What's Next, went very well. Terry and I had the chance to speak with over 100 church staff and volunteers on how Fellowship utilizes the web across our diverse ministries. We started each session with a 25 minute presentation, then opened the floor for questions. Out of the 100+ people, I would guess that 50 had heard of weblogs and 20 actually had a weblog of their own.

The questions were great, covering workflow, the use of volunteers, content management alternatives (Contribute and Mambo Server were both raved about), and the debate over our recent switch to QuickTime streaming. I also had the chance to tell the story of Scoble visiting Fellowship. Scoble should be happy to hear that he was discussed at a church conference!

The general sessions with Ed Young, Andy Stanley, and Rob Bell were fantastic. Be sure to check-out Terryoneachof thesessions.

Comments

The first session loved the Scoble story (for some reason, most of the bloggers came to that one). There were a lot of knowing laughs and nods of approval as I explained how blogs give you a strange sense of knowing someone (the fact that you were in Dallas for a wedding) and shared my shock when you called my cell phone. Terry and I both raved about your near-verbatim transcript posted less than 24 hours later and the numerous times you have stood up for Fellowship Church against attacks from Christians and other churches!

Of course, the point of the story, besides making me look good(!), was that blogs provoked a conversation about church in new places, and on a far wider scale than the best church website in the world could achieve.